Detroiters Speak Out Against Crime During 8th Annual Neighborhoods Day

Members of Positive Images celebrated at the 2010 ARISE Detroit! Renewing the Village event at Hart Plaza. (credit: arisedetroit.org)

DETROIT (WWJ) — Reducing crime in Detroit was the focus of a gathering in Palmer Park as part of the 8th annual Arise Detroit Neighborhoods Day on Saturday.

The overall sentiment was that “enough is enough” when it comes to crime in the city and that too many innocent bystanders are the victims of such crimes.

Executive director of Arise Detroit, Luther Keith, said there were neighborhood cleanups, block parties and even groups from other states helping the city.

“On west side two groups from out of town that have been working,” Keith said. “Rippling Hope, which is out of Dallas, Texas — they have hundreds of volunteers that have been working in Detroit for the last couple of weeks. Then we have Rebuild America, out of Richmond, Virginia — they’ve brought hundreds of volunteers that are fixing up homes on west side of Detroit.”

Victor Gibson, of Detroit, said that reducing crime starts with educating people.

“When we getting our sense of self and sense of community, then we can stop some of the violence,” Gibson said. “But if I look at you as another person to get over on — another victim to be — then I’m gonna look at you to grab and take everything that you have, so we trying to stop that mentality.”

Don Henderson added that there’s a need for peace in the city.

“In an event like this we bring different entities together — different citizens from across the city — to get to know each other and see that we have more in common that we don’t have in common, in most cases,” Henderson said.

Other events that took place on this year’s Neighborhoods Day included home deconstruction, neighborhood clean-ups and a back-to-school rally.